The teacher

The teacher must first
teach himself:
more than words,
the bones of it.

Like Plato’s
men in the cave:
if one fire-watcher
tells another fire-watcher
of the sun –
this is pure fantasy;

But a philosopher
who walks back from above,
who has still sunlight on his breath:
he exhales light;
his words glow with truth discovered;
he is a beacon in the darkness
and no mere creature of it.

Let the teacher first become
a thirst for knowing.